B 



VVN. 









TRAITORS AND THEIR SYMPATHIZERS. 

SPEECH 



s §£Lof WAS* 



HON. B. F. WADE, OF OHIO, E 2 458 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 

April 21, 1*02. 



Mr. WADE said : Mr. President, it was not my 
purpose to have said one word on this occasion. 
It is very rarely that an}- question can come for- 
ward here that will provoke any reply from me. 

•I have listened to the two hours' string of plati- 
tudes which the gentleman has uttered here, to 
which I have not one single word of reply. Thfij 
are precisely such as every lawyer makes when 
his client is on- trial on an indictment in 8 
case. He always appeals to those great guaran- 
tees of liberty that are so well provided for in the 
English law. Every lawyer of very little practice 
seems to understand how and when 10 invoke 
them. To that part of the speech I have not one 
word to say. I agree with him entirely,- I would 
be the last man to raise my hand to break down 
one single scintilla of those great barriers of right 
and liberty to which he has so often alluded, and 
which are household words to us all. He need 
not have read his books, he need not have quoted 
his authorities in an American Senate on those 
points, because every man stands ready to sub- 
scribe an amen to all the doctrines to which he 
has alluded. 

But, sir. he stepped a little beyond that course 
of remark, and violently assailed the committee 
of which I happen to be the chairman. 

Mr. McDOUGALL. Will the Senator allow 
me to ask one thing? 

The PEES] DENT pro tempore. Does the Sen- 
ator from Ohio yield the floor? 

Mr. WADE. Yes, sir. 

Mr. McDOUGALL. I shall probably leave 
the Senate, but I Wish to ask the Senator a ques- 
tion. I do not know that 1 have a right to inquire 
whether this arrest was made at the instance of 
the committee on the conduct of the war or not. 
It has been stated so and rumored so. I under- 
stand the responsibility is shifted from shoulder 
to shoulder. I did not mean to say they had done 
so, or to assail them. I know it was necessarily 
done, according to my information, by a person 
acting by the authority of the Secretary of War; 
but I should like to be informed if it was not at 
the instance of the committee on the conduct of 
the war, for I should like to be able to think so 
well of every member of the Senate as to relieve 
myself of the suspicion that is on nay mind. I 
did not charge it on the committee. I do not 
know of my own knowledge that they have ever 
done an unworthy or improper thing. 

Mr. WADE. You ought to know. 



Mr. McDOUGALL. Do not understand me 
as doing anything more than trying to make 
a form of inquiry by which I might be advi I, 
in some form, why this great wrong has 
done. 

Mr. WADE. I did not yield the floor to be cat- 
echised, but for an explanation, If the gentleman 
had any to make. It turns out that instead of an 
explanation and apology for what he has said, I 
am to be catechised further on the subject. Now, 
the Senator says he does not know what he has 
been talking about. I did not suppose he did. 
lie says he made the remark as a kind of fishing 
argument to see if he could not draw out some- 
thing from somebody that would give him some 
light on this subject. 

Mr. MrDoUUALL. That is my very object. I 
have sought light on the subject with great labor 
and industry. 

Mr. WADE. The Senator in the course of his 
remarks alluded to the committee of which 1 am 
chairman. I cannot repeat exactly Hit words, 
but it was to the effect that we had been made 
use of, or that we practised stabbing men in the 
dark; that we profess to have some kind of tes- 
timony against men, and then throw it out to 
their prejudice and the prejudice of their char- 
acters. 1 demand of that Senator now specifi- 
cally to tell me what he meant by it. Where 
has it been done and by whom ? 

Mr. M< DoUGALL. If I were aware that the 
committee on the conduct of the war had been 
responsible for this act, I should hare spoken 
of that committee as I spoke of the person now 
at the head of the War Department. 1 know by 
informal ion that witnesses hare testified bei 
your committee, because a gentleman told me 
lie was going before the committee in relation 
to this \ it. matter. 

Mr. WADE. I want to knew specifically — 

Mr. McD( lUGALL. Do you want to know the 
man ? 

Mr. WADE. I want to know personally and 
specifically from that Senator when and where 
it was that that committee threw out dark insin- 
uations to wound the character of any man? 

When, where, and how have they done it? 

Mr. McDOUGALL. I did not state that the 
committee on the conduct of the war had done 
any such thing, and you will fir! I am not so 
reported. 

Mr. WADE, then I entirely misunderstood 



the Senator, for I understood a charge of that 
kind to hare been made. I am glad to hear that 
the gentleman says now that he has made no 
su»h charge, for I know that no such charge can 
bts sustained. 

Mr. McDOUGALL. I am glad to hear that 
also. 

Mr. WADE. Why glad to hear it, sir ? You 
never heard the contrary; never, never. While 
you throw out dark insinuations against the 
committee, I ask of you to be specific, or to 
ulpate them from the charge you have made. 
State wherein they have stabbed any man in 
the dark. I can tell the Senator the course of 
that committee towards General Stone — not that 
I mean to be provoked under any considerations 
into a discussion of the merits or demerits of 
that gentleman here. This is not the tribunal 
ire whom he can be arraigned and tried. 
Eowever, as many allusions have been thrown 
out in the Senate against the committee of which 
I, without any seeking of my own, was made the 
chairman, (for I had nothing to do with the rais- 
ing of the committee.) I perhaps owe it to the 
committee and to myself to state the course of 
proceeding we have adopted. We have assailed 
no man. We have gone forth in the spirit of the 
resolution that created us a committee to inquire 
into the manner in which this war has been con- 
ducted ; to ascertain by the best evidence and 
the best lights we could wherein there was any- 
thing in which we could aid the Administration 
in the prosecution of this war, and wherever 
there was a delinquency, that we might ferret 
it out, apprize the x\.dministration of it, and de- 
mand a remedy. I suppose it was for that pur- 
pose that the committee was created with the 
immense powers that were devolved upon it. I 
do not say whether it was wise or unwise to 
create su%h a committee. The Senator from New 
York [.Mr. ll.viuus] yesterday said he thought it 
exceedingly unwise, because the committee, as 
he supposed, were conducting the war; that is, 
placing the armies in the field, and dictating the 
policy bfthe war. We did not construe our pow- 
ers in that way. We knew that in the vast busi- 
ness that pertained to the executive branch of 
the Government, it was impossible for them to 
look into everything connected with the conduct 
of the war which they would like to know and 
which it was most essential to the country that 
Haey should know. Therefore, having leisure to 
inquire into many alleged abuses that they had 
no power or no time to investigate, we took it 
upon ourselves to investigate them, and. I Bay 
with a discretion and with a solicitude 
t i injure no man that has never been exceeded 
i any investigation of any committee on God's 
earth. 

Sir, we have not published what we have us- 
ined to any mortal man except to those 

who wen- an 1 w ith (fee power of administering 

emedy, \o idle curiosity lias prompted any 
<•>■ of that committee to proclaim to the 
world tinlonj thai was be- 

lt. I challenge the Senate, and every man 
of it. to tell me which member of the committee 
or where have we made known to the public 
what was going on before as. I admit that as 
we ascertained facto, the existence of malprac- 



tices, short-comings, and things inconsistent with 
the proper and beneficial conduct of the war, we 
have sought interviews with the President of 
the United States, we have sought them with the 
.Secretary of War, and on some occasions with 
the whole Cabinet, and there in secret have dis- 
closed the testimony that has come to ns, and we 
have endeavored to, work out a redress, and in 
innumerable instances I know we have done it, 
where, had it not been for that so-much maligned 
committee, the Administration would have been 
entirely ignorant of what was going on. Pat- 
riotic as they are, vigilant as they are, anxious 
as they are to ascertain the truth on all subjects, 
they are not invested with omniscience, and with 
six hundred thousand men in the field and in- 
numerable officers, it may sometimes happen 
that there may be an unworthy one in that num- 
ber without their being - aware of it. We have 
endeavored on all occasions to enlighten them, 
but not to stab any man in the dark, as I under- 
stood the gentleman. to insinuate, but which he 
backs out of now, and says he did not intend any 
such thing or did not say any such thing. 

Now, with regard to General Stone, we are 
not the tribunal that ought to try him. I do not 
believe we should be put in possession of that 
kind of testimony that tends to implicate him. 
Ivdo not believe that it would be my duty either 
to* the public or to General Stone here in the 
Senate to proclaim to the world all the testimony 
that came before the committee on the conduct 
of the war. But this much in exculpation of 
the Executive I will say in general terms, in order 
to repel the insinuations of the Senator from 
California: I will say here in my place that there 
was. and is, probable cause for the arrest of Gen- 
eral Stone. I am not going to detail the evi- 
dence. I regret that it becomes necessary that 
I should say anything in public on the subject. 
I had rather trust it with those whom the Con- 
stitutiou and the law charge with the execution 
of this matter ; but his indiscreet friend will drag 
it out here; and I say, then, in behalf of that 
abused Executive, that there is probable cause 
tor his arrest. 

We are tyrannical — the nation is tyrannical, 
says the gentleman,- and he quotes authorities 
from nations at war v, ith each other where there 
is no suspicion of treason; where all is loyalty 
on both sides; where nations have national feel- 
ings sufficient to repress everything favoring the 
adversary, and to bring forward everything fa- 
voring their own nation, lie cites these prcee- 
dents to enlighten us in the midst of a civil rev- 
olution, "where traitors are in qur midst, where 
you cannot walk thestreets without meeting men 
\\ hose hearts are opposed to the prosecution of 
this war. No. sir : you cannot go through the 
Executive Departments but you meet with vio- 
lent enemies of the Government you are en- 
deavoring to maintain. lie reads precedents 
from English history to show the forbearance of 
that nation in times of civil strife. I wonder 
that tin- reading of that did nor carry him bach 

to the time when England was involved in civil 
war. If it had. would he not be astonished at 
the mildness and forbearance of the <io\ernmcnt 
in the course it has pursued towards these trai- 
tor- in our midst? Sir. if you look at the old 



records during those troublesome times, yon will I caution, and with all this pretended tyranny, 
find that men on Blight*! e\ iueiiee than would j you have not been able, as yet, to conci 
impeach the gentleman were hung up by the knowledge of the most important e?:peditio 
neck until they were dead, and yet he lauds the \ your armies and your intended movement 
mildness of the .British Government. It is a re- the enemy as soon as your own people po 
markable fact, and I fear not entirely to our it, the man who stands up for a rigid execution 
credit either, that while we have been involved of the habeqs corpus and the law, a,- in time of 
in this great rebellion, while this generation are peace, is but a sympathizer with them. While 
taxed, and future generations will be taxed to 1 am up, let me say that in times of revol 
the utmost of their capacity to defend them-elves, and rebellion like this, when whole States 
while this ungodly war was waged against the come out and proclaimed their intention I" de- 
beat Government on God's earth, and it has coat stray the life of our glorious Government, 
the most precious blood of this nation to repel wln-n they have their martial hosts in the 
the insurrection, after one whole year has passed Held, bent on its destruction, I undersi 
by, there has not yet been made a single example them to be entirely absolved from the pro- 
of treason, not one; no attempt to take the life, tecting a>gis of the Constitution. " 
nay, e von the property, of the hellish traitor that renounced it utterly. They have struc] ■■ : 
has caused the sacrifice of our dearest and mosfUlife. They would take your heart's blood. 
precious blood. proclaim themselves ready to do it. And yet, 

Sir, the man who invokes the Constitution in sir, you are to treat them with lenity ! Your 



forbearance of the law to punish traitors is him 
self a sympathizer. There never was a man 
who stood up in this Senate from the time when 
Mr. Breckinridge preached daily in favor of con-j 



Constitution prescribes that no u shall be 

deprived of his life, or despoiled of his goods, 
without due process of law. it guaranties to 
every man the right of life, liberty, and propr 



stitutional guarantees until now, and set up con- crty; but are you not compelled to advance into 
stitutional barriers against punishment for trea- his country with your armies, to plant your can- 
non, and destroy him by whole armies together? 
Is that constitutional? My secession friend, if 
man than that he is invoking the forbearance of there is any such here, why do you nut invoke 
the Constitution and the great barriers in favor ' the Constitution in opposition to our cannon and 
of American liberty to protect an infernal traitor i our musketry against these rebels ? The Consti- 
in his course, to know that he is a sympathizer, tution protects their rights. You do not invoke 
Our Administration is assailed because, not hav- it on the field of battle. You do not summon a 
ing the technical evidence in their possession to jury. You do not try him there by jury, as the 
bring a man to trial and judgment of death, they ■■ Constitution says you shall. Why do "you not 
do not let him go at large to plot against the life carry your doctrines to their legitimate end? 
of the Government. Why stop short? Does the Senator from Galifor- 

Mr. President, I have said a great deal more ' nia pretend that when our hosts march in battle 
than I intended ; but the theme is a very fruitful array, and meet those of the enemy, and it is life 
one. A tyranny exists here, it is said. Sir, is it against life, we should summon a jury before we 
not most manifest to everybody that from the ! begin to shoot, and s°e whether they had coin- 
time when this treason broke out, when we had j mitted actual rebellion? Your Constitution says 
traitors in this Senate proclaiming their treason ' their lives shall not be taken without due pn 
on this floor, when they conspired to take the of law. I ask you, caviler about the Constitution, 
life of your President on his waj- to the capital, where is the law for it? 
when they beset your regiments coming here for , Sir, no jurist yet has had the folly to at 
no other purpose than to defend your capital, to limit the powers that a man may use in de- 
until now, every scintilla of information that fence of his own life when assailed : and so no 
your Executive has is communicated to traitors statesman will attempt to limit the power that a 
on the other side of the river as soon as it is to I nation may use when the life of the nation is 
the people on this side. The Administration assailed. There is no limit to it. You have a 
have attempted to put that down ; they have not right to go forward in an individual case in your 
succeeded; and yet the Senator stands there and might, and if your life is sought, any force, any 
says you should not arrest a scoundrel when you power, anything that you may do honestly in 
know his heart is with the enemy, but who mean- defence of your own life, the law pronoun 
ly skulks from overt acts in their favor ; you ' justifiable act. So, when the life of the nation 
should not imprison him. you should not restrain is assailed by vile traitors embodied in military 
him ; but you must let it all go, and permit the array for its destruction, tie;, are beyond all 
enemy to be perfectly cognizant of every expeili- law, they have repudiated all law, and the na- 
tion and of every move you make. lam sorry t ion. in defence of its Constitution, it- Union, 
that the Senator does not remain on this floor and its flag, may resort to any ,; God 

and meet the consequences of his insinuations Almighty has put into their hands honestly to 
against the Administration and against the com-, maintain tiieir constitutional rights. I know verv 
mittee. ■ jwell that small lawyers ma; gel up on the i 

Sir, it is perfectly manifest that if persons are greal questions of statesmanship and pettifi 
shut up in dungeons, and restrained of their lib- a man would to screen a felon before a justice > f 
erty, it is that the Constitution may live. I know the peace, and place his arguments on those nar- 
it is not in accordance with the principles of our row principles of constitutional law. He may 
Constitution. In ordinary times it could not for I require all the presumptions of innocence that 
a moment be tolerated; but when, with all your | arc so often resorted to to shield a culprit from 



the punishment of his crime. It is done here. 
But, sir, the man whose life is assailed does not 
summon a jury, and the nation whose life is 
assailed by traitors need not summon a jury. 
AJ1 you want is the power, honestly exercised, 
to put it down. 

Let me say, in passing-, that every word and 
every syllable that the Senator invoked in favor 
of General Stone might have been just as well, 
and with more propriety and more strength, 
urged in favor of Jeff. Davis to-day. He- had played 
a very important part in .Mexico; he had held 
high offices under your Constitution ; and all the 
thai the gentleman resorted to to 
shield General Stone would be infinitely strong- 
er in ; I Jeff. Davis to-day. Lucifer was 
once a brighl angel in heaven; but he fell, and 
he lias not been much honored in that quarter 
since. [Laughter;] 

Sir, 1 am tired of hearing these arguments in 
favor of traitors. The Constitution takes their 
live-, their property, their all. Why shall we stop 
short? Are they not in quest of ours? If there 
is any stain on the present Administration, it is 
that they have been weak enough to deal too len- 
iently with these traitors. I know it sprang from 
goodness of heart; it sprung from the best of mo- 
tives : but, sir, as a method of putting down this 
i llion, mercy to traitors is cruelty to loyal 
men. Look into the seceded State-, and see 
thousands of loyal men there coerced into their 
armies to run the hazard of their lives, and 
placed in the damnable position of perjured 
traitor? by force of arms. If there is a man there 
bold enough to maintain his integrity in the 
face of these infernal powers, do they scruple to 
take his Life, his property, his all? Sir, by your 
merciful course you have paid a premium to 
treasoii. and made it almost impossible that a 
loyal man in the seceded States can maintain 
himself at all. Those States are overrun fre- 
lawless bands of rebels, who do not 
Bcrupli fmenl to take their property and 

their Lives, and treat them with every indignity 
and i :. that a perverse ingenuity can 

invent : but, on the other hand, when our armies 
com< . they deal quite as leniently with 

the traitor as with the loyal man. What teaches 
human nature? A man, having solely a regard 
to hi If-interest, living in one of those com- 
muniti undoubtedly reason thus: "I 

be a traitor; I must co-operate 
witi: if their lawless bands overrun 

ountrj I inhabit, if 1 show any Union senti- 
to the old Constitution and the 
old flag, 1 shall lose not only my lite, but all I 
bile, on tii'- i>ther hand, if the Fed- 
■ un the country, they are so len- 
ient the traitor as I am 
will i ti\y my life, but my property, 
and all I have." Sir, the rule is as impolitic as 
STou should carry -the avenging 
i along with your armies, and smite tri 

and smite treason, and put it down, and yield 

■lion to honest, Loyal men. Until you 

; that com ill war in vain. Mr. 

Cor one, I say let us go forward 

i and traitCtS ; let us put down 
this rebellion at all hazards. If, in doinj 
your darling institution must go under, 1 shall 



not regret it. If it must come to this, that the 
Union and slavery cannot live together, let 
slavery die the death, for the Constitution, the 
Union, and the time-honored old flag shall live 
forever. • 

Sir, I have been in the Senate for some consid- 
erable time, and I should have been an exceed- 
ingly dull man if I had not learned the course of 
defence that is constantly set up here for those 
who have assailed the institutions of our country. 
There is an unvarying course of remark that they 
indulge in. so that no man need lie mistaken as 
to What they intend. Those who assail the Ad- 
ministration on account of what they call tyranny 
to men sympathizing with traitors, never to my 
knowledge, open their mouths on this floor in 
condemnation of the men who have risen in arms 
and are endeavoring to murder your Constitution 
and your Government. Towards them they are 
as mild as sucking doves. You will find one 
1 ear-mark among them all; and that is to 
assail those who are opposed to traitors and en- 
deavor to bring them to condign punishment; 
but you will never hear a lisp from one of their 
mouths in opposition to the men who are now 
with arms in their hands assailing our institu- 
tions and our Government. AVhile the Senator, 
in his long and elaborate speech, has accused 
everybody else, have you heard a word from his 
mouth against the men who are now in arms en- 
deavoring to overthrow your Government? 2\'ot 
one syllable. Sir, you may know all these men 
from this circumstance' they are the men who 
cry peace, peace, when they know there can be 
no honorable peace. Since the Senator — if the 
papers report him aright; and 1 see no contradic- 
tion of it — descended from his honorable position 
on this floor and weat into secret conclave with 
those who sympathize with traitors for the avow- 
ed purpose of reconstructing' the Democratic 
party, he and all those who co-operate with him 
throughout the land have violently assailed the 
administration of the Government, and especially 
are they opposed to the proceedings of the Sec- 
retary of War. There is a premeditated attack 
of the whole party upon the Administration. In 
the first place, they assail them as tyrants, as op- 
us, as Constitutiofa-breakers; and external- 
ly, out of this circle, they are arraigning those 
who have acted in the Administration before 
your judicial tribunals. Witness the late attack 
upon our late Secretary of War. General Came- 
ron. It is but the commencement of proceed- 
ings well understood by that party in order to 
a — ail ami to intimidate the agents of the Gov- 
ernment through thejudii iary, . i overawe them, 
to prevent them doing their -tern duty to trait- 
I suppose, that tln-y who can 

make Dred Scott deci 11 be willing to 

lend their official influence tor the purpose of 
trampling under fcot 'ei boldly 

forth to defend the Constitution and the laws. 

'l'lie committee of which i happen to be a 
member is in the same category, and we are to 
be assailed oh all occasions. Wa\ ? I am proud 
that '• 'led from tb It shows 

that our shots sometime- tell. Who are they 

who rise up ami assail the committee on the 

OOndud of the war? Are the\ men who are 
eager to trample this rebellion underfoot? Are 



they the men who have shown a disposition and I 
a zeal to put down rebellion? No, sir. I am j 
happv that we are assailed iti such excellent 
company as that of the President and Secretary 
of War. I care not who they are. nor where 
they are: whoever shows a zeal for patting down 
this rebellion will find that he is in the category 
to be assailed by this new organization torecon- I 
struct the Government. 

Now, let tee ask who are these gentlemen that i 
• are to reconstruct the Democratic party and the 
Government? What kind of an alliance is to be 
formed, and with whom, in this reconstruction? 
I am sorry I do not see the Senator from Califor- 
nia here, because 1 know, from the position he 
holds towards those who make these assaults, 
he would be able to give us light on the subject. 
I accuse them of a deliberate purpose to assail, 
through the judicial tribunals, and through tin 
Senate and the House of Representatives of the 
United States, and everywhere else, and to over- 
awe, intimidate, and trample under foot, if they 
can, the men who boldly stand forth in defence 
of their country, now imperiled by this gigantic 
rebellion. I have watched it long. I have seen 
it in secret. I have seen its movements ever 
since that party got together, with a colleague of 
mine in the other House as chairman of the com- 
mittee on resolutions — a man who never had any 
sympathy with this Republic, but whose every 
breath is devoted to its destruction, just as far as 
his heart dare permit him to go. 

What have the committee, who have been tints 
assailed, done, that should call down upon them 
the anathemas of the Senator from California, 
or should compare them, as well as the President 
and Secretary of War, to grand inquisitors, sit- 
ting behind the backs of men to get up accusa- 
tions by which they are to be tortured and de- 
stroyed at the stake? Sir, I grant you we have 
a zeal. yea. a determination, so far as it lies in 
our power, that this Government shall be main- 
tained, that treason shall be put down at all 
hazards-tend by any means that God Almighty 
has put iii our hands. [Manifestations of ap- 
plause in the galleries.] No accusation of ty- 
ranny, no comparing us with inquisitorial tribu- 
nals, no mawkish sensibility in behalf of traitors, 
will have the effect to deter us from our resolute 
determination to put treason under our feet and 
bring back the Government to its old glorious 
bearings. Notwithstanding all the whining in 
this body or outside of it. in your courts or any- 
where else, this will be done. 

Sir, v, e have heard all these arguments before. 
We learned this tune a year ago from those who 
are now in the so-called Confederate States. 
They were always crying out about violations of 
the Constitution, ami ever ready to invoke it in 
aid of treason. That was the course of remark 
from the lips of every one who deserted his post 
and went out an open enemy to your Constitu- 
tion and your laws. Sir, 1 remember well when 
Mr. Breckinridge, stood on the other side of the 
Chamber, ■ king this same kind 

of speeches, accusing us of being violators of 
the Constitution of the United States; and inas- 
much as we plainly had the right to coerce trai- 
tors, to put down treason by force of arms, he 
stood there to deprecate it, and to invoke the Con- 



stitution as a barrier against loyal men. The 
argument Ave have heard to-day is but a repe- 
tition of those we heard a year ago. I could 
bring the arguments made then on this floor by 
traitors who are now in open rebellion; and 
they would make no discord with the speech we 
have just heard. 

But. I ask again, what has this committee done 
to lie complained of in the matter of General 
. who lies at the bottom of this resolution 
and of all the Senator's remarks ? Sir, early 
in this session it pleased both Houses of Con- 
to raise a committee empowered and di- 
l to inquire into the conduct of this war. I 
it no position upon that committee ; I had 
nothing to do with getting it up ; but when it 
Mas raised, being placed at its head, 1 east about, 
as did the rest of the committee, to ascertain 
how we could make ourselvi ;s mosl useful to the 
Government in the exercise of the vast powers 
which it had been the pleasure of Congress to 
confer upon us. We instituted a pretty broad 
inquiry into public affairs, and especially into 
the manner in which this war had been con- 
ducted, and among other things we were spe- 
cially directed byname to look into thai great, 
terrible blunder and catastrophe, the affair of 
Ball's Bluff. If, in that investigation winch you 
commanded us to make, it turned out that there 
was an appearance of disloyalty in the com- 
mander-in-chief, was it not legitimate for us to 
inquire into it? The Senator seems to think 
not. He considers that we were travelling 
greatly out of our way when we took evidence 
tending to criminate General Stone, at the head 
of a division of your army on the very frontiers 
next to the enemy; that we hail no right to look 
into it. Your soldiers had been slaughtered by 
hundreds, like cattle taken to the shambles, ap- 
parently under circumstances deeply impeach- 
ing somebody that had the command. I do not 
rise with any purpose to argue that matter, as I 
told you before, not because I could not make 
out my case as I believe, but because you are not 
the triers, nor am I the Attorney General to pros- 
ecute the case before you ; but it is my purpose to 
state enough of that proceeding, not to justify, 
but to. make the action of that committee trium- 
phant before this nation. 1 repeat again what I 
said the other day, that if there ever was a com- 
mittee that proceeded with discretion, with mo- 
deration, with a care and forbearance that no 
man should be injured, it is the committee of 
whom I am chairman, and of whose action I am 
proud. We are an Inquisition forsooth ! The 
gentleman assailed the committee long before he 
knew anything of its action. He accused us of 
proceeding txparte, getting a kind of illegitimate 
testimony, going forward with that ami present- 
ing it to the Administration to the detriment of 
innocent men. I will ask the Secretary to read 
this synopsis of our proceedings to justify the 
committee from all the imputations the Senator 
has made. 

The Secretary read, as fill. 

January 29, 1862, the com rmed the Secretary 

of War that they bad been ihforft CleUa 

that General Stone was Id this cay. iM that be (General 
an) was of the opinion that Qeneral Stone should 
appear before the committee In regard to the matters laid 
to his charge, and the committee iutbniiol the Secretary of 



6 



War that they were willing to hear General Stone at any 
time. 

On January 31, 1862, General Stone appeared before the 
committei- the second tune, was informed of the nature of 
the evidence bearing against him, and was allowed to pro- 
ceed ami make hi? nwn explanation in his own way. 

The committee then appointed a sub-committee to wait 
upon Ifae Secretary of War, and inform him that there was a 
conflict Hi testimony in relation to General Stone, and to 
communicate to him whit that testimony was. 

Mr. WADE. That, sir, is the inquisitorial 
course we have taken with General Stone. As 
he was likely to be implicated in the Ball's Bluff 
affair, he was one of the early witnesses that we 
called in. We were not inquiring into the eon- 
duct of any individual. That was not what we 
were placed there, as we believed, to do. It was 
not our construction of the powers that were 
granted to us. We were to inquire into the facts 
connected with the conduct of the war, and it 
there were short-comings or delinquencies that 
might light upon anybody's head, we were not 
to direct it; we sought no evidence to impeach 
any man, and if the evidence seemed to impinge 
on the credibility, the loyalty, or the character 
of any man. we sought that man, and laid before 
him the course of the evidence, and the matters 
wherein he was inculpated. We did the same to 
General Stone. We summoned him before us to 
give an account of that affair at Ball's Bluff, to 
give us all the information he could on the sub- 
ject, and alter that, as you see from our records, 
the much applauded chief of your Army, whom 
the Senator believes to be immaculate and above 
the suspicion of anybody, was the very man that 
knocked at our doors to inform us that, in his 
judgment, it was our duty to summon General 
Stone again before us, and we accommodated 
him. We did not want any more testimony than 
we had got, but if General Stone had any new 
light to throw on the subject, we. as an impartial 
committee, were not only willing, but anxious 
that he should appear before us. He did appear 
before us. I will not say that in his amended 
testimony he made the case infinitely worse than 
it was before. I will not go into that, for I do 
not want to inculpate him unless he is guilty. 
Sir, we have done Genera] Stone no harm ; 
none at all. If be is an innocent man, his 
own testimony stands forth as his justifica- 
tion. If we have informed the President, the 
Secretary of War. and the Cabinet of the testi- 
mony that seemed bo impeach him, we also 
showed his own exculpation at the same time. 
and then, at the in-tauce of this immaculate 

commander of ours, we received Genera] Stone 
again, and went through the whole tiling. 

Where is the accuser of that committee? I 
hope he has not skedaddled after making his 

Speech. We are an inquisition, arc we? We n 

to be impeached by the Senator from California. 
Why ? If in the course of our investigations we 

ascertained that there was a traitor in the camp, 
and wen not to make it known, in (bid's name 

what business had we in the committee ; what 
business had we in the Senate: what busi 
had w '■ in the United Sta as private 

citizens? The gentleman said on Wedne 
last thai ii was the deepest, the most disgrace- 
ful thing lie ever had beard of. lie seemed to 
regret thai it had been his fortune to get into a 
lace where lie had to associate with men BO de- 



praved ; for that is a fair construction of what 
he said. Sir, I imagine he worked hard to get 
here; and I do not think he is polluted by the 
contact at all. I consider it to be a part of my 
senatorial duty here, if I happen to know that a 
man holding a high office is disloyal, where his 
disloyalty might prejudice the public, to make it 
known without being on any committee espe- 
cially detailed for that purpose. And yet the 
Senator thinks it is deeply disgraceful to do so ! 
That is his idea of toleration towards traitors 
whom he never assails, or speaks a word in dis- 
paragement of. 

Now, sir, as I said before, I have listened to 
this kind of defence of traitors long enough. 
What has the Administration done that this gen- 
tleman should rise here in the Senate and brand 
them as tyrants and despots and inquisitors, and 
tell us he is going to run a parallel between the 
President and Secretary of War and the old in- 
quisition ? Why. sir, only think of the perfect 
burlesque I The President of the United States, 
who neither by word or deed or thought would 
harm a hair of any man's head, who. of all men 
I know-, is the most reluctant to offend anybody, 
but who, as a patriot, is anxious to vindicate the 
Constitution of the United States and the Gov- 
ernment he has sworn to support — and Ire does it 
with a toleration and a mildness towards these 
traitors that has met with the censure of many 
good men, who think he does not go far enough — 
this mild, equitable, just man is to be branded 
here, by a Knight of the Golden Circle, with 
being a grand inqnisitpr, armed with tyranny, 
whose purpose it is to destroy the rights and 
property and the lives of men ! Sir. the thing 
is absolutely ridiculous, and would not become 
any Senator on this floor, unless he was com- 
|i -lh sd in do so by joining this new-fangled organ- 
ization, whose purpose it is, we are told, to re- 
construct the Democratic party. 1 believe I 
asked the gentleman what kind of reconstruction 
it was to be. The old Breckinridge-Buchanan 
party south of Mason and Dixon's line are, to a 
man. traitors. There arc no exceptions. 1 defy 
any Senator to rise in his place and tell me what 
Buchanan-Breckinridge Democrat south of Ma- 
son and Dixon's line is not an open and avowed 
traitor, committing overt acts, and. under the 
Constitution of the United States, condemned to 
death. Their Northern sympathizers are but 
little better: indeed they arc worse — worse be- 
cause they arc not so bold. There is something 
in a bold, courageous man, even in a bad cause, 
that seems to give him a little righl to to] 
t ii in : but your miserable sneaking hypocrite that 
sympathises with him. and yet has not the cour- 

to commit the crime, can expect nothing 

but to be despised by honorable men. Now, 

men are goin : to reconstruct a pi rty. My 
• bid. what a party it will be! .Just think of it : 
the Southern Buchanan traitors reconstructing 
with the Breckinridge traitors of the North! 
They will be harmonious just as far as their 
courage will permit them to go together. They 
will not differ on anything else but as to the 

length to which they can earn their proceed- 

I'.iit, sir, there was salt in the old IVnioeratic 
party. They do not talk of reconstructing with 

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